Theresa May joins Barack Obama and other leaders in condemning Russia for blocking aid to Aleppo

Syrian residents fleeing the violence in the eastern rebel-held parts of Aleppo react as they evacuate from their neighbourhoods through the Bab al-Hadid district after it was seized by the government forcesCredit:
GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images

Theresa May has joined with other Western leaders to condemn Russia’s role in the “humanitarian disaster” in Aleppo and appeal for an immediate ceasefire in the war-torn city.

The prime minister along with President Barack Obama and the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Canada said Vladimir Putin was blocking efforts to get humanitarian aid to the 200,000 civilians still inside rebel-held east Aleppo.

“We condemn the actions of the Syrian regime and its foreign backers, especially Russia, for their obstruction of humanitarian aid, and strongly condemn the Syrian regime's attacks that have devastated civilians and medical facilities and use of barrel bombs and chemical weapons,” the leaders said.

Aleppo locals gather their belongings and flee to safety after the rebels are forced to retreat from Assad's soldiersCredit:
AFP/Getty Images/GEORGE OURFALIAN

“A humanitarian disaster is taking place before our very eyes. Some 200,000 civilians, including many children, in eastern Aleppo are cut off from food and medicine supplies.”

The six leaders said the “urgent need now is for an immediate ceasefire” to allow the UN to deliver aid to the civilian population, which has been cut off and under siege since July.

But the appeal looks likely to be ignored by the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies as they continue to make rapid progress in what may be the final days of the four-year battle for Aleppo.

Pro-regime forces have captured more than three-quarters of the rebel-held eastern side of Aleppo in the last two weeks and on Wednesday drove rebel fighters out of the historic Old City.

Rebel forces are now confined to a few neighbourhoods in the southern part of their territory and look unlikely to hold out much longer against the Syrian army and its allies from Hizbollah and other foreign militia fighters.

Some 275,000 people were living in rebel-held eastern Aleppo before the government's advanceCredit:
AFP

The international appeal for a ceasefire was made in conjunction with a proposal by rebel groups for a five-day ceasefire to allow aid in and for the evacuation of 500 critically wounded civilians. It asked that they be allowed to go to the northern countryside outside of Aleppo.

The Assad regime, sensing that victory may be close at hand, said there could be no ceasefire until rebel forces agreed to leave east Aleppo.

The Kremlin said it was still open to trying to reach US-Russian deal to get the rebels to leave Aleppo but said that no talks were planned. Previous efforts to reach an agreement have collaposed.

Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said that very few of the roughly 8,000 rebel fighters in east Aleppo had left and that they were consolidating in the few remaining opposition neighbourhoods.

He said Russia considering all those fighters still in Aleppo to be “terrorists” and said they were rallying under the leadership of former fighters from al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda linked group.

The West acknowledges that there are some al-Nusra fighters in east Aleppo but say they make up a small fraction of the total rebel force in the city.

The army said it had taken over areas to the east of the Old City including al-Shaar, Marja and Karm al-Qaterji, bringing them closer to cutting off another pocket of rebel control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said al-Shaar and some other areas had been taken, but did not immediately confirm the takeover of all the areas announced by the army.

A Turkey-based rebel official denied al-Shaar had been taken but said fighting continued in the neighbourhood.

Outside of Aleppo, the government and its allies are also putting severe pressure on remaining rebel redoubts. The Observatory said a heavy Syrian and Russian aerial bombardment in the last three days in the mostly rebel-held Idlib province to the southwest had killed more than 100 people.

Winter is coming

The rebels' loss of the eastern half of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, would be the biggest victory of the conflict so far for Assad, securing his grip on all Syria's main cities.

It would also be a success for President Vladimir Putin who intervened to save Moscow's ally in September 2015 with air strikes, and for Shi'ite Iran, whose elite Islamic Republic Guard Corps has suffered casualties fighting for Assad.

UN official Jens Laerke said: "Winter is approaching, it's already getting very, very cold so that has come up as a priority need ... Food is running out, the little food that is available is being sold at extremely inflated prices."

Insurgents, meanwhile, have fought back ferociously inside Aleppo. Some of the fighting took place on Monday within half a mile of the ancient citadel, a large fortress built on a mound, and around the historic Old City.

With narrow alleyways, big mansions and covered markets, the ancient city of Aleppo became a UNESCO heritage site in 1986. Many historic buildings have been destroyed in the fighting.

Apart from their support for rebels fighting against Assad, Western countries are also taking part in a US-led air campaign against Islamic State, the Sunni Muslim militant group which broke away from other anti-Assad groups to proclaim a caliphate in territory in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Moscow says helping Assad is the best way to defeat Islamic State. Western countries say the group gains strength from the fury unleashed by Assad's military crackdown on his enemies.

France, a staunch backer of the anti-Assad opposition, will convene foreign ministers of like-minded countries in Paris on Saturday to try to come up with some form of strategy in the wake of the Aleppo onslaught, although few diplomats expect anything concrete to be achieved.

Western countries say that even if government forces take Aleppo, they will still not be able to end the conflict, as long as millions of Syrians see the government as a brutal enemy.